The Campaign Builder's Guild

Soul Merchant
 [note]This is my response to the lich.  D&D has done a great job creating villains that are memorable because of their interesting abilities and flavor.  I am trying to figure out what makes those villains so much fun to fight and so iconic and steal that pizazz while creating something completely different.  I've very happy wit the flavor of this template even though I tweak it a lot.[/note]The Lady of Shadows wages an eternal war, fighting to escort the souls from their deceased bodies to the afterlife.  Her opponents are primarily necromancers and those who would feed off the dead.  There are also fiends who would swoop down and take the souls of the living to keep as servants or, perhaps, turn into fodder for their ever-growing armies.  The primary method for obtaining these souls comes from the soul merchant, a being who has been given everlasting life and immense power but will forevermore spend its days collecting the dead to increase its power and that of the lower planes.

Soul merchants are beings who live until slain yet fight ferociously and tend to be quite successful in preventing their deaths.  Each soul merchant lives under a contract with a fiend where the soul merchant is given eternal life in order to collect the dead souls of others.  These soul merchants are always accompanied by an army of souls they have stolen from the afterlife.  Each soul added to the merchantâ,¬,,¢s collection only serves to increase its power.  

Historically, the soul merchant has been known for its reaper, a weapon that splits the soul from the body and binds it to the merchant.  The reaper is normally a scythe, but any weapon that can sever skin â,¬' sword, spear, axe, or even bow â,¬' has been occasionally carried by a soul merchant.  Their weapons are an extension of their contract and perhaps their greatest weakness.  Destroying a soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s weapon, a feat in and of itself, is often the quickest way of dispatching the soul merchant. Thankfully for the soul merchants, most people don't know that.

The soul merchant appears as it did prior to signing the contract that turned it into a soul merchant, except that it gains its reaper, a vicious and evil looking weapon, and it becomes darker, almost grayed.  Clothing it wears is always draped in shadows.

Creating a â,¬Å"Soul Merchantâ,¬Â
"Soul merchant" is an acquired template that can be added to any humanoid creature (referred to hereafter as the base creature).  A soul merchant has all the base creatureâ,¬,,¢s statistics and special abilities except as noted here.

Speed: A soul merchant gains a fly speed equal to its base land speed with perfect maneuverability.  

Special Attacks:  A soul merchant retains all of the base creatureâ,¬,,¢s special attacks and gains those described below. Save DCs are equal to 10 + Ã,½ soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s HD + soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s Cha modifier unless otherwise noted.

Shrieks of the Damned (Su): If a soul merchant enters combat and takes damage or deals damage, its entourage of souls immediately begins to shriek.  Creatures of less than 10 HD in a 15-foot radius of the soul merchant must succeed on a Will save or be affected as though by a fear spell casted by sorcerer of the soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s level. A creature that successfully saves cannot be affected again by the same soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s aura for 24 hours.  This ability cannot be suppressed by the soul merchant.

Sever and Bind (Su):  A killing stroke committed by the soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s reaper against a humanoid creature can rip the soul from the victim and attach the soul to the merchantâ,¬,,¢s entourage.  A soul merchant may also claim a person who has died within the past minute by a successful attack against the corpse.  A person may resist the binding through a successful will save.  Any person whose soul has been bound to the merchantâ,¬,,¢s entourage cannot be resurrected until it is released or the soul merchant is kiled.  If a soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s entourage is full, the severed soul is immediately sent to the fiend who has the contract with the soul merchant.

Special Qualities: A soul merchant retains all of the base creatureâ,¬,,¢s special qualities and gains those described below.

Damage Reduction (Su):  A soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s body becomes imbued with infernal strength, giving the creature damage reduction 10/holy.

Darkvision (Ex): The soul merchant gains darkvision out to 60 ft.

Immunities (Ex): Soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s have immunity to cold, fire, electricity, petrification, and polymorph attacks.

Reaper (Su):  The soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s key weapon is its reaper.  The reaper may be any slashing or piercing weapon but not a bludgeoning weapon, since bludgeoning weapons cannot part flesh or cut the tie from the physical body to the soul.  A reaper is normally a scythe.  Bows are possible, but they can only sever and bind if the soul merchant is within 30 feet of its victim.  The soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s reaper acts as a magic weapon with an enhancement bonus equal to +1 per four hit dice the soul reaper has.  The reaper has double the normal hit points and hardness for a weapon of its kind.  If a reaper is destroyed it will regenerate within 24 hours.

If a soul merchant is slain it loses all of its soul entourage but will not die.  The soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s body will vanish into the reaper when slain and all of the souls will be released without going to the soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s fiendish owner.  The only way to destroy a soul merchant is to destroy its reaper.  If a soul merchant is in a reaper it becomes dormant and will only be freed if the weapon is used to kill somebody.  If the weapon is used its Sever and Bind ability will activate and, as soon as one soul is bound, the soul merchant will release from the reaper at full hit points and with any spells, if it had them, already prepared.  

Soul Entourage (Su): Every soul the soul merchant collects becomes part of his or her entourage.  All of these souls follow the soul merchant around on the ethereal plane, like ghosts, but they cannot be destroyed.  If they are attacked on the ethereal plane then the damage they take regenerates instantly.  They are also completely mindless, simply following the soul merchant.  They all look just as they did in life.

A soul entourage cannot have any more members than the number of hit dice the soul merchant has.  Hence, a seventh level soul merchant can only have seven members of its entourage.  Any member of its entourage cannot be resurrected unless the soul merchant releases the soul from its service, at which point it is instantly sent to the fiend who owns the merchantâ,¬,,¢s contract.  

Speed of the Night (Su):  In complete darkness the soul merchantâ,¬,,¢s base land speed and fly speed increase by 30 feet.  

Traits of Immortality (Su): In many ways the soul merchant resembles an undead.  It is immune to fatigue and exhaustion effects and does not eat, breathe, or sleep.  It cannot be affected by raise dead and reincarnate abilities, but, unlike undead, also cannot be subject to resurrection and true resurrection if slain.  It takes damage from positive energy spells and heals from negative energy spells.  

Abilities: Increase from the base creature as follows: Str +4, Dex +4, Wis +2, Cha +6.

Skills: Soul merchants have a +8 racial bonus to Intimidate and Move Silently checks.  Otherwise same as the base creature.  

Organization: Solitary

Challenge Rating: Same as base creature +2.

Treasure: Standard.

Alignment: Any evil.

Advancement: By character class.

Level Adjustment: Same as the base creature +4.

Hehe, I really like this template (I'll steal it if you don't mind ;)). Overall it all seems fine, I liked the fluff and all, and it's an interesting thing to add to an NPC. The only real thing that just didn't seem right to me was the DR 5/holy. The 'holy' part is fine by me, mind you. I'm just thinking of creatures that have as many immunities (cold, fire and electricity) and they usually have a higher DR. I think you intend these guys to be kind of hard to kill... and I don't know, I'd go with 10/holy... *Shrugs* That's the only change I'd make to it if I was gonna use it...

I originally had 10, I believe, and then I thought that was way too high for a 3.5 creature.  Of course, comparing it to the lich and ghost, it's nothing.  Both the lich and the ghost have a +2 CR but one has a DR 10 and the other is freaking ethereal.  You might be right, I think I may just change it back to DR 10/holy.